In a stinging opinion piece in published in the daily Eesti Päevaleht, member of the Riigikogu Eerik-Niiles Kross (Reform) condemned the Estonian media as well as the country’s elites for their obsession with what he sees as pointless topics, while disregarding the last few weeks’ unsettling developments concerning Russia.

Kross pointed out in his piece that over the last few months, Russia had stirred up trouble with the West wherever it was given the chance. It had bombed hospitals in Aleppo, as well as schools and humanitarian aid convoys. It had vetoed a UN resolution to end the killing of civilians in Syria. It had broken off, continued, and broken off again its negotiations with the United States, while that country’s political elite was busy with its presidential elections and not paying attention to what was happening abroad.

Russia moved its Iskander missile system to its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad on Oct. 7. Iskander could deliver nuclear warheads to any target within 500 to 700 km, including Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm, and Poland and the Baltic states in general.

Kross pointed out that Russia’s demands had taken on the nature of an ultimatum, including not only dropping economic sanctions, but compensating Russia for the damage done by them. It wanted NATO troops out of Eastern Europe, it was no longer ready to continue its plutonium disposal agreement with the U.S., and it had brought its S-400 missile systems in Crimea to full alert. And the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov was now on the way to the Mediterranean.

Russia’s military activities along its Western borders were a cause for concern as well, Kross wrote. On a single day last week, Russian state TV showed two ballistic missile exercises, one of which taking place on a nuclear submarine. Also on Russian state TV, citizens were instructed how to find fall-out shelters should “Day X” arrive, and demonstrated the siren sounds they would hear in case of war.

Kross also pointed to the fact that the Kremlin handed a bill to the State Duma to change military service law to increase the military’s readiness to “respond to current challenges abroad” and quickly raise troops in case this was necessary.

Several Western capitals had noticed that the families of Russian diplomats as well as in some cases the diplomats themselves had been transferring to Moscow. On Monday last week, the governor of St. Petersburg had issued a decree to guarantee 300 grams of bread a day for every resident of the city in case of war.

All of this didn’t necessarily have to mean that Russia was getting ready for war, Kross stressed. But tensions were higher than ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A large part of what Moscow had been communicating could at least in part be seen as a psychological attack.

Perhaps the lack of interest of the Estonian media and political elite in these developments could even be seen as a good reaction, Kross opined, though at the same time the zeal with which the country went about dragging down its leaders and destroyed its belief in itself and the trust in its institutions was irresponsible.

Kross called on journalists as well as politicians to pause and take a good look at the topics debated over the last few weeks. All of these supposedly important matters were not important at all, and the hype that had developed around them was weakening everyone’s resistance, clouding their judgment, and destroying much needed trust, Kross wrote.

Siim Kallas’ disappointment and the Reform Party’s supposed internal battles, the Center Party, state support paid to President Ilves’ country home, President Kaljulaid’s staffing decisions, all of these topics had to seem completely idiotic to anyone able to see beyond the rim of their morning beer, Kross opined.

“In the coming times we will need Siim Kallas as well as Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Jüri Luik, Allar Jõks, Marina Kaljurand, Kersti Kaljulaid, Kadri Simson, and everyone else who is capable, we also need a healthy media, brains, and confidence. This is the last chance to change gears, listen calmly, discuss what matters, and start building up instead of tearing down. Build bridges and trust. What is needed are cleverness and cold-bloodedness, not cowardice and stupidity,” Kross wrote.

Enterprise Estonia handed out advice to companies, and assessed whether or not they should receive public support, without being economically accountable, lawyer Taivo Ruus wrote in a Postimees opinion piece on Monday. This needed to change, and these activities delegated to professionals.

After 17 years in government, Reform needed to find to a new role, and instead of being the manager of the Estonian state become a debater. How the party would get used to its new position, no longer able to dictate the political agenda, remained to be seen, said political scientist Mari-Liis Jakobson in a comment on Vikerraadio on Friday.

Speaking on Sunday’s Raadio 2 broadcast of "State of the Union," radio show host Andrus Karnau found that the scandal to break out last week involving Martin Repinski’s goat farm was likely to culminate on Monday in his replacement as a minister of the newly-installed Estonian government.

While the Baltic states would prefer full defensive capability, NATO is emphasizing its reinforcements’ function as a deterrent. The alliance would have to round off its military presence in the area with diplomacy, and political stability and dedication to liberal democratic values would play an important role maintaining the West’s solidarity, columnist Ahto Lobjakas wrote in an opinion piece published in daily Postimees.

In an opinion piece in daily Postimees, former EU commissioner Siim Kallas points out that Rail Baltica goes far beyond considerations of its route on Estonian soil, and the money the government will have to invest. On the contrary, there is a broader European meaning that includes considering the strategic situation of Estonia.

Speaking about the recent US presidential elections on Vikerraadio’s Sunday broadcast of "Samost and Rumm," hosts Anvar Samost and Hannes Rumm recognized that Donald Trump’s election win is being considered as the destruction of two political dynasties there, however democracy and dynasties don’t go well together anyway.

The fact that too many foreign journalists do not understand the Estonian language, and that they have no access to the local political culture and its players, has distorted reports abroad of what happened this week, writes ERR News editor Dario Cavegn.

On Friday, the ministers of the Social Democrats (SDE) and the Pro Patra and Res Publica Union (IRL) began calling back Reform Party members from the boards of state-owned companies and funds. The Reform Party’s reaction was an announcement published on Sunday — a rather strange one, finds ERR News editor Dario Cavegn.

Ärma Farm’s funding scandal was overshadowing the achievements of Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ presidency, including the fact that Estonia had benefited from state visits that Ilves hosted in Ärma, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform) said to ERR on Thursday.

On a journalist exchange in Estonia, Benno Schirrmeister of Bremen’s TAZ is highly informed, yet a blank slate as far as a foreigner’s experience of Estonia is concerned. In his first op-ed about Tallinn, he spots something beyond IT that Estonia could advertise — but doesn’t.

According to Ingo Mannteufel, head of the Department for Russia and Europe at Deutsche Welle, there is a possibility of the Kremlin starting to believe its own propaganda, which could lead to dangerous decisions both domestically and internationally.

Estonia’s largest political parties had been going through the most serious crisis in their existence, and on top of that they had lost their most important function, namely to formulate a vision of the country’s future, daily Postimees wrote in its Friday editorial.

According to director of Tallinn’s International Centre for Defence and Security and former ambassador to Russia, Jüri Luik, the increased tensions over the past few weeks between Russia and the West indicate Putin’s wish to exploit the ambiguous mood before the U.S. presidential elections as much as possible.

In a stinging opinion piece in published in the daily Eesti Päevaleht, member of the Riigikogu Eerik-Niiles Kross (Reform) condemned the Estonian media as well as the country’s elites for their obsession with what he sees as pointless topics, while disregarding the last few weeks’ unsettling developments concerning Russia.

After Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ decade in office, and after he promoted Estonia like no other president did before him, his legacy is now tainted by the fact that he seems to have gone for a substantial state grant in 2006 that he never put to use — and of which he will now pay back just a tenth.

In a recent opinion piece in daily Postimees, columnist Ahto Lobjakas wrote that one way to look at Rail Baltic was as a step towards the level other countries had already reached in terms of speed and comfort of their railway connections. The main weakness of this point of view was the fact that in Estonia, it lacked the necessary social context.

For a potential future coalition with the Center Party, the Reform Party needed to change its leader as well, Social Democratic MP and chairman of the Riigikogu’s Foreign Affairs Committee Sven Mikser wrote in a comment on social media on Friday.

The greatest accomplishment of President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is that he branded Estonia as a modern and innovative 21st century country, and brought it out of post-Soviet obscurity, writes Tallinn University’s Matthew Crandall.

The uncertain public performances of Estonian politicians and poor explanatory work were to blame for a considerable increase in public distrust during the migration crisis, found ERR journalist Greete Palmiste, working in Bremen on an international journalists' exchange, in an opinion piece written for German publication taz.die Tageszeitung.

On Friday, Aug. 12, Estonian representative to the European Court of Auditors Kersti Kaljulaid delivered a patriotic speech on the Postimees Stage at the 2016 Opinion Festival in Paide in which she expanded on two words and two respective ideas she found important for her country that were represented by the two letter Es in its native-language name Eesti: eetiline (ethical) and enesekindel (confident).

The Estonian language as a language of science is only sustainable in those subject areas that offer undergraduate courses in Estonian, and with which students begin their university education, finds ERR science portal editor Marju Himma.

The Center Party’s presidential candidate, Mailis Reps, wrote in an opinion piece published in daily Postimees on Sunday that the Administrative Reform Act was a disappointment to Estonia’s municipalities, and that relations between local and central government were in a crisis.

Describing himself as "wearily spiteful" instead of angry, ERR's Narva correspondent Jüri Nikolajev responded to the top secret memo on Ida-Viru County that leaked recently, calling Estonians to figuratively not leave their property laying around if they did not want anyone else to take it for themselves.

In 2015, the Government Security Committee received a secret memo containing a dark assessment of the future of Ida-Viru County, Estonia's most northeastern and predominantly Russian-speaking county, which was compiled by Ilmar Raag, who worked as a strategic communicatins advisor at the Stenbock House at the time. Estonian journalist Sulev Vedler responded to the memo by compiling various reactions to issues it addressed.

Journalist Alo Lõhmus explored the right to Estonian citizenship by "jus sanguinis," Latin for right of blood, as it relates to one's eligibility to run for president — an issue which has had particular attention drawn to it recently after members of a competing political party attempted to cast doubt on the status of presidential candidate Marina Kaljurand's Estonian citizenship.

Columnist Erkki Bahovski commented on the curious, decidedly defensive turn that seemed to be taken by Finland's Social Democrats following the release of a lengthy report by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (UPI) which suggested that Russia, in its own self-interest, is attempting to hamper Finland's total integration with the West.

The Reform Party’s presidential candidate, Siim Kallas, said in an opinion piece published in daily Postimees that an estate tax, more precisely a tax levied on real estate, could be considered to finance local government.